MT. COMFORT — Two investment companies plan to expand their Hancock County facilities by 2020.
Representatives from Alliance Interstate Park Indiana Becknell Investors, LLC and West 350 N Land, LLC each spoke to Hancock County Council members last week requesting 10-year property tax abatements for their Mt. Comfort industrial buildings. The companies are investing almost $35 million combined.
The council approved the requests on first reading, and a public hearing is set for 8:30 a.m. Oct. 10.
Becknell Investors owns the 250,000 square-foot facility at West County Road 300N that houses Spectra Premium Corp., an auto parts manufacturer. Spectra and Becknell are seeking a new 535,800 square-foot building between Landsberg and Brybelly on County Road 200N in Alliance Interstate Park.
The building will sit on 33 acres of land and is slated to cost about $25 million over 10 years, according to tax abatement documents from the Hancock County auditor’s office. Construction is expected to last from May 2019 to March 2020.
Larry Siegler, chief operating officer of The Peterson Company, said when Spectra representatives met with the county council in 2008, the company was expecting to add 50 additional jobs to its existing 45. Spectra currently has 260 employees and is “busting at the seams,” prompting the need for additional space, Siegler told council members. The new facility will retain its 260 employees, he added.
Skip Kuker, the executive director of the Hancock Economic Development Council, said with Spectra expecting to move locations, the county will soon have 250,000 square feet of space for prospective companies to lease.
Indianapolis-based The Peterson Company, a longtime developer of industrial spaces in Hancock County, will oversee the construction of both proposed abatement projects.
Two years ago, West 350 N Land, LLC purchased 14 acres to the south of the building it owns on West County Road 350N, just east of its intersection with North County Road 700W, Siegler said. Warehouse space for Adidas and CVS occupies the nearly 600,000 square-foot building.
The investment company intends to expand the building to the south by about 350,000 square feet at a cost of $9 million, according to abatement documents. The speculative building, Peterson said, is estimated to bring in 24 jobs with a $30,000 per person salary.
Construction of the expansion is slated to begin in March 2019 and last until February 2020.
